‘I’m lucky, Horace. I’ve always been lucky. I’ll be lucky again. So declared Lillian Hellman’s ruthless anti-heroine Regina Giddens in “The Little Foxes.” She announces this to her critically ill husband, after he has foiled her crooked plans to become wealthy.

Moments later, Regina does indeed become lucky once again.

Recently, I interviewed veteran actor Dennis Christopher, who has a juicy role in the current Quentin Tarantino Oscar-nominated hit, “Django Unchained.” (He plays Leonide Moguy.)

But way back in 1981, Dennis, who had, as he put it, a kind of ‘happening’ film career, put it on hold to join the Broadway-bound production of “The Little Foxes.”

That revival of Lillian Hellman’s condemnation of all-American capitalist greed was to star Elizabeth Taylor in her stage debut, as the unsatisfied, avaricious, downright fatal Regina.

The star of stars had had quite enough of sitting at home in Washington, D.C., or Virginia, while the man she helped elect to the Senate, John Warner, worked at the Senate. (Taylor had never been married to somebody whose profession and interests were entirely foreign to her. Even hotel heir Nicky Hilton knew all about show biz.) Elizabeth lost weight for “Foxes,” cut back on the Jack Daniel’s, and put her mind to this latest challenge — which nobody thought she could actually accomplish.

Dennis, though impressed that he’d be working with the legendary movie queen, was really more excited about the prospect of being onstage with fabled character actress Maureen Stapleton. (Stapleton played the pathetic Birdie in “The Little Foxes” and she was magnificent.)

Dennis says: “I thought Elizabeth would be, well — Elizabeth Taylor. I was looking forward to her, but I did not expect a certain degree of professionalism from her — not theater professionalism, anyway. I was wrong. She was shockingly open to every suggestion, never pulled rank, never ran off in a fit, was perfectly willing to run lines, sit on the floor to mark and highlight the script. There was nothing to suggest she had ever been a pampered movie star with people falling over themselves to please her. It turned out, she was a theater professional! And, she was superb in the role.